1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process to create an objective drilling performance assessment system. In particular, the present invention provides a method to create a drilling performance assessment ratio that may be used to evaluation drilling performance and identify promising opportunities to improve drilling operations.
2. Prior Art
Oil, gas, and other drilling operations comprise a number of discreet operations, which are performed in a sequential order in order to perform the overall drilling operation. The actual steps, while subject to variation, are well known. As the process of drilling requires huge investments of capital equipment and investments of personnel, there are continuing efforts to improve the efficiency and improve the performance of the drilling operations. In the past, different types of performance analysis techniques have been applied including technical limit analysis, learning curve analysis, and benchmark studies.
In technical limit analysis, an estimated well duration is generated by a group process whereby experts consider the best time observed on an operation and estimate the best possible time given the situation based on experience with a particular type of well, and with a particular set of equipment.
The prior techniques are based either on human judgment or past performance, not on objective standards. Each of the prior analysis techniques is difficult to produce and sometimes statistically inconsistent.
One difficult part in evaluating drilling performance is comparing the performance of wells in different situations, such as different business entities, different depths, lithology, or complexity. Additional factors include pressure regime, hole size program, vertical, directional, horizontal or multilateral drilling, and rank wildcat vs. routine development.
It would be advantageous to develop a process that could compare drilling performances in different business entities and under different conditions in order to identify where to most effectively apply drilling engineering or operational resources.
It would also be advantageous to provide a process to improve petroleum drilling operations by helping identify promising opportunities to improve performance and efficiencies.
It would also be advantageous to provide a process to set performance targets and identify where savings could be found.